We’ll be taking your thoughts on all the weekend coverage from various sites leading into the big events for both WWE (Extreme Rules) and New Japan (New Japan World). Also interested in your thoughts on whether there is a difference in coverage weighted toward the UFC event tonight from Montreal. Send thoughts and tips to les@sheetsandwich.com
Be sure to check out our new piece looking at some of the entertaining work happening over at the Camel Clutch Blog, which first came to our attention when it was announced that it would be the new home of Joe Babinsack. But, as you’ll see from our article, there is more to this site than the ‘Sack.
We’ll have our feature story on wrestling podcasts up later on today, looking at some of the best ways to get your wrestling fix delivered right into your ear via digital audio without paying a dime.
Here are the Top 10 Wrestling News Websites for the week according to Alexa.com
1. Wrestlezone.com
2. Wrestlinginc.com
3. Lordsofpain.net
4. Ewrestlingnews.com
5. 411mania.com/wrestling/
6. Pwinsider.com
7. Nodq.com
8. Rajah.com
9. Pwmania.com
10. Pwtorch.com
We’ll likely have a more detailed look at this in the coming days breaking down not just the sites included, but the glaring omissions, too, including a look at why one of the biggest sites you’d think should be included aren’t being tracked.
Saturday News Update
** Yesterday was an all time low for news coverage in the daily update over at f4wonline.com. The news word count for the day (below “Friday News Update” up to “this day in history”) was 979 words. Word count of plugs for current and past editions of the newsletters available: 3,699.
** To put this in perspective… It would be like if the live stream on the WWE Network ran three times as many ads for shows coming up later in the week, on top of ads telling subscribers they could order DVDs and Blu-rays of popular wrestlers from the past 25 years from WWEshop.com. You’d think those in 2015 operating a pay site for wrestling fans, charging more than it costs to subscribe to the WWE Network could figure out a way to reduce the signal to noise ratio for paying members. To flood a daily update with three times as many plugs for a newsletter subscribers already have access to, or hawk back issues than they do news for the day is kind of appalling.
** I know breaking news isn’t they’re thing, but… A day and a half after most free sites reported the news, f4wonline.com finally got posted a story Saturday about five developmental talents being released from NXT. PWInsider, wrestlingin.com, and even a place called twnpnews.com all had the story yesterday.
** Can anyone confirm that on Mike Johnson’s recent Elite (paid subscriber-only show) podcast promoting “Springer discusses his new WWE Network series…” that he was rehashing Graham Flanagan’s recent interview with Springer for Business Insider, and erroneously making it seem (to non-subscribers) like it was exclusive? Is this the same PWInsider who epically melt down whenever “cut & paste” sites rehash their news and cite them as a source?
** For those who don’t want to pay for Johnson’s rehash, you can listen to Flanagan’s interview with Springer talking about is upcoming WWE Network show “WWE Too Hot For TV” here.
** For new or casual readers asking for the elevator pitch version of why Todd is no longer appearing on the show: Basically, Bryan wasn’t originally going to do anything (or nothing severe enough to Martin’s liking) about Coughlin’s tirade against Martin on the message board, which upset him and made him not want to do the show with Bryan for a while. Thus, the site’s “the show is on an indefinite hiatus” stance.
Meanwhile, we’ve gotten word that Martin is still considering whether to do his own “ToddCast” elsewhere.
** I’ve never been so impressed by the complete lack of quality on a podcast as I was when I listened to Bruce Mitchell and Travis Bryant on their PWTorch LiveCast Friday night. Just anunlistenable, garbled mess of a thing that nearly caused me to throw my iPad across the room in disgust because Downcast wouldn’t pause fast enough. A truly remarkable piece of work. Makes one appreciate the quality of audio from Voices of Wrestling and WONF4W.
** Elsewhere… this is a thing: An amateur podcast offering decent audio quality and little else. I started listening as art of the research for our feature story on free alternative podcasts available. But they spent the first nearly 10 minutes bemoaning the lack of listeners and/or listener engagement, making it seem like no one “with a fucking pulse” even hears the show. Not a great way to attract new listeners, or get them to stick around. Still, it does say something that even these guys, doing their thing for free still manage to have better audio quality than PW Torch.
I find Todd Martin’s incredibly thin skin irritating. He needs to learn a lesson from the great John Cena and Rise Above Hate.
Anyway, I’ve enjoyed the two seconds each week that I’ve regained that I spent deleting Todd’s episodes in Downcast.